Recent Dredd stories have been credited to Kenneth Niemand, leading to speculation concerning the identity of the author.
The stories are well-written enough that the author is clearly not a newcomer to comics and the level of engagement with the concepts and themes at the heart of the strip suggest they're unlikely to be a first time Dredd writer either.
As demonstrated by the list of 2000ad pseudonyms above, the writers most likely to employ pen names are members of editorial staff wishing to conceal their connection to the publisher, but both Nerve Centre employees with scripting experience have stated they're not Niemand.
The list of writers who've scripted Dredd for 2000ad is still pretty short, and the Niemand stories published so far don't exhibit the stylistic tics or thematical concerns of any of them. Niemand's either an infrequent contributor or an established author switching to Southpaw
I'm calling Wagner.
Reasons:
1. It's such a darn good story (which doesn't preclude other droids
of course, but if it wasn't any good you'd know it wasn't Wagner).
2. It's an important story. Obviously no idea how long it'll run but in terms of character development, I can see this being pivotal. In fact I almost get a sense of The Dead Man about it - it's an under-the-radar prologue to something bigger.
3. It features robot Judges. Yes, I know the mechs are featuring more often and yes, I know that Wagner doesn't exclusively write them now (vis. Rory McConville's 'Technophobes' the other week); but the way Patsy is first surprised that humans are unaware how sophisticated it is, then caught out by a lack of such sophistication in humans, leads me to suspect Wagner's hand.
4a. Wagner's History of pseudonyms
4b. Why would any other writer use a pseudonym?
Seriously, I don't know why any other droid would be scripting under a pen name. If it were an up-and-coming writer they'd be too keen for recognition to conceal their identity. And of it were a famous writer coming into the 2000 AD fold, Tharg would be proclaiming it from the rooftops.
For what it's worth, I think the use of the Niemand pseudonym for the Starlord story was a diversionary tactic.
5. Wagner's comment, mentioned upthread, that Dredd would end his days in a back alley shooting. Dredd himself even repeats that belief in this installment!
The point about stylistic tics is interesting, and got me thinking - how many stylistic tics from long-term Dredd writers would we actually recognize? The only instance that sprung immediately to mind was Rob Williams' use of convoluted and contrived wordplay for humour. Could we honestly make a list of active Dredd scribes along with notes on what to spot?
Regarding 'The Samaritan', so far there are only a couple of things I picked up. The plot has a procedural feel to it which is characteristic of many Wagner Dredds. And last week the title character used the exclamation "crap" - does Wagner usually swap this out for 'stomm' or suchlike?
Anyway, I am preparing myself to be thoroughly embarrassed when next week Tharg reveals the mysterious Mr Niemand to be none other than Boris Johnson.
